W. B. Godbey - Enter His Rest

dictionary, which only gives the pagan meaning of baptizo and baptisma, which is not what we want since they
were heathens, and though very learned in Greek philosophy and literature, utterly ignorant of the Bible and not
acquainted experimentally with the God of the Bible.
We do not need dictionaries to study the Bible, because in its very nature it is a dictionary within itself, and the
only one in the world that has any authority in the way of expounding Bible truth. The word “bible” is the Greek
“biblos,” and simply means a book. Thus our Bible, by way of pre-eminence, is named, “the Book,” therefore it
is its own authority on everything. Of course, subordinate and collateral authorities are valuable and edifying;
yet when the Bible speaks, they must all be silent.
As the Roman Empire was the upholder of ancient civilization, when the Barbarians, Goths, Huns, Vandals, and
Heruli, after a three hundred years' war, succeeded in her destruction, the Barbarians took the world, bringing in
the dismal night of a thousand years known in history as the “Dark Ages,” from the fourth to the fourteenth
century. Of course the Church went into barbarism, and was literally inundated with superstition and ignorance,
e. g., a preacher got up in his pulpit on Sunday morning and began his sermon by crowing like a rooster to wake
up all the people to hear him preach.
They then immersed people three times, with a lot of superstitious ceremonies running on for days. When we
undertake to plow through the rubbish of the Dark Ages and get back to Bible times, we quickly run into a fog
bank, out of which we never escape. Therefore the true plan is to take the blessed Bible and be satisfied with it
in everything, always rejoicing in God, and not in Church rites or anything else but our wonderful Savior
Himself, who, single-handed and alone, has brought to us the wonderful salvation, so rich and sweet, full and
free.
“Brother Godbey, does not Romans sixth teach immersion?” We have the same Scripture by the same author in
Colossians second chapter As these are really the strongholds of immersion, which all of its advocates
emphasize constantly as their indefatigable Gibraltar, therefore we should examine these Scriptures very
carefully, all the time soliloquizing like little Samuel, “Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth.” The great
importance of entire sanctification consists in the fact that it is the only experience that can utterly kill out old
deep-rooted prejudice, and make us perfectly limber in the hands of the Lord. N. B. Prejudice is so mean,
wicked, and Satanic, that we ought to watch and pray lest the smallest vestige of it may linger down in the deep
interior of our spiritual organism.
The word is from the Latin, pre, beforehand, and judicium, judgment; therefore it means a judgment delivered
before you hear the evidence. I heard of a judge who said he always made up his decision when he heard one
side of the evidence, because if he waited to hear the other side he would get so puzzled that he would not know
how to decide. The Holy Ghost, with His wonderful Word and penetrating illuminations, is the greatest
revolutionist in all the world. Truly He turns the blackest midnight into brightest noonday. Therefore let Him
have His way with your mind and spirit and once for all let us briefly examine these Scriptures; meanwhile we
are deaf to every other voice.
(1) The Scriptures describing this wonderful transaction are purely spiritual. There is not a mention of, nor
even an indirect allusion to, anything physical or material. There is nothing said of water nor of the human body.
This wonderful transaction crucifies old Adam and buries him forever into the death of Christ, which is but
another name for the great vicarious, substitutionary atonement wrought by our wonderful Savior for the
redemption of the whole world, from sin, death, and Hell.
The omnipotent agency by which the mighty work is wrought is here denominated baptism. No human being
who has not water on the brain, (and remember, hydrocephalus is a most fatal disease), can see one drop of
water in this whole translation. God forbid that we should be wise above what is written. In this wonderful
transaction, our old man is crucified and buried into His death and left there forever. If he should from Satan
receive the resurrection power, the last state of that poor soul is worse than the first. Therefore it should be our
everlasting vigilance and prayer to keep him buried deep into His death, I. e., forever lost in the felicitous
oblivion of the great vicarious atonement, where all sin must be buried, otherwise it will be buried in Hell fire,
serving as Satan's millstone to drag us down, and eternally sinking us into deeper depths.